Death's Merchant
by Ebenbild
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERS! Tony dies - but Tony has died before... and why is it always him who meets Death's Doorman instead of one of his loved ones? ! (No Highlander-knowledge necessary)


_**Disclaimer:**_ _I'm too young to own the Avengers or Highlander: The Series..._

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_**DEATH'S MERCHANT**_

sSs

"_Live, grow stronger - fight another day!" - Methos (Highlander Series)_

sSs

Sitting on the earth, in the middle of a battlefield, with Thanos' people dying all around him, Tony Stark slowly but surely felt himself dying.

This would be the end.

He had used his gauntlet as the holder of the Infinity Stones.

He had snapped his fingers and changed the world.

He had fulfilled his destiny.

"Morgan," his mind whispered. "Peter… Morgan… Pepper…"

But it wasn't truly them on his mind.

Instead of dwelling on his loved ones, his mind had gone back to the day he had died the first time - Afghanistan.

The day Tony Stark's normal life had ended in the volley of the Stark-bomb fragments.

And while he had always told everybody that he had fallen unconscious just to wake back up in a cave, he had never lied as often as then.

Yes, he had been unconscious.

Yes, he had woken up back in the cave.

_**Yet,**_ he had died that day, hadn't been just unconscious but _dead_.

xXxXxXx

"Where am I?"

The world around him was white, foggy and not a world like one Tony had ever seen before.

"In the in-between," another voice answered and Tony jumped startled before turning around rapidly.

The man behind him was looking quite average.

He wore a wide, white pullover, white jeans and white shoes.

His hair was black, cut short.

His eyes were more golden than green and the only distinguishing feature was his a bit too big nose.

"Who are you?" Tony asked, changing his stance to one he had learned from the few hours of defence training he had had over the years.

The man looked at him in amusement.

"Does it matter who I am if what I represent is a lot more important right now?" he countered, clearly amused. "But if you want to know, I can tell you that I am the beginning and the end. I am the first to have lived in this universe and the last to leave it. I am a rider, the fourth horseman, and for you, I am both master and weapon."

"That doesn't explain anything," Tony countered, his eyes narrowing, suddenly cautious.

The other man smirked.

"It doesn't, young merchant?" He asked Tony, clearly amused. "Well, it doesn't matter that you can't make sense of my words right now. There are some other, more important things you'll have to think about right now."

Tony frowned.

"More important-?"

"Your life, for example," the stranger replied.

It was then that Tony remembered what had happened shortly before he had found himself here.

"The bomb," he whispered. "I died."

The man looked amused at that, his hand showing a so-so motion.

"You might have, you might have not," he replied.

"The bomb blew up. There are shrapnels in my body. There's no way-"

"There's somebody trying to keep you alive right now," the other man replied, sitting down on a chair that hadn't been there just seconds before, before leaning backwards, sprawling bonelessly. "So, theoretically, you can go back."

"Back… to life?"

"Yes," the man said, slumping into his chair even further - even if that feat nearly looked impossible to begin with. "That's a possibility."

Tony frowned at the man.

"A possibility?"

"Well, you could go on," the other man replied calmly, waving his hand vaguely to his right. "I won't and can't stop you if you decide to die today. It's your choice."

That was when Tony finally actually asked one of the questions he maybe should have asked a lot earlier.

"How come you're even here if I'm basically dead right now? I mean… this should be something like my way to death or whatever - so how come that I've company I don't know on my way there? I mean, from what I heard and all that shit, shouldn't it be someone I know greeting me or whatever?"

The other man laughed.

"Sure," he agreed. "If you were only on your way to death, you might have been guided by a person you know and trust like Mr. Edwin Jarvis or his wife. But, like I said: we're in the in-between, not truly on the way to death, yet. Which also means you get to meet me - not them."

"So, you're what? Death's bouncer?" Tony joked half-amused, half-terrified.

The other man snorted.

"More or less," he answered amused. "Now - should I let you in or throw you out, Anthony Edward Stark?"

Tony raised his eyebrow at the other man.

"You're giving me the choice?"

The other man shrugged.

"Normally, I don't give choices," he replied. "But there's always an exception to every rule - which leads to us here."

"Why?"

The other man just looked at Tony a bit pityingly.

"Because Tony Stark, billionaire and warmonger, will die today, not matter what you decide, young merchant," he replied. "So, even if you return, it won't be the same man who comes back to life today - and since this would be a rebirth, you get a choice."

Tony couldn't help but think that the other man had lost his marbles.

Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because the other man's eyes started to twinkle in silent amusement.

"You will see, little merchant," he said and then gestured for Tony to leave. "Now, off you go!"

Tony threw the other man a slight annoyed look.

"I thought I get to decide what to do," he remarked.

The other man smirked.

"You already did," he replied. "Now shoo! Live! Grow stronger! Fight for me another day!"

And before Tony could protest about being treated like a child, the white, foggy world around him vanished and he woke up in the cave.

xXxXxXx

That time in Afghanistan had been the first time he met the stranger, but not at all the last.

Thankfully, the next time he had met him wasn't nearly as dramatic as the first - well, maybe it might have been just as dramatic in truth… just in a different sense of drama than the one before.

Tony was staring into nothingness, trying to come to terms with the fact that he would die within the next months.

Palladium poisoning - and there was nothing he could do.

He had his head buried in hands, not looking up, not wanting to see the world.

At least, that was what he did until he saw a white shimmer through his fingers.

He startled and looked up - just to see a man walking through his lab, looking interestedly at the things that were lying around.

A pale hand touched one of his gauntlets.

"You have some very interesting ideas, Tony Stark," the stranger greeted him, not even looking at Tony and yet somehow knowing that Tony had seen him, anyway.

Tony stared.

He blinked frantically for a moment, then he rubbed his eyes.

The stranger was still there.

"Who… are you?" Tony finally forced himself to say when the stranger didn't turn out to be an illusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Sir?" JARVIS said from the ceiling. "Are you alright, Sir?"

Tony decided to ignore him for the sake of watching the white clad stranger in his lab who was now touching one of Tony's computer screens.

"I can see you're a brilliant individual, Tony Stark," he said interestedly, still not looking at the man himself. "Your mind… definitely has some very interesting ideas."

Tony stared at the man. He had no idea what to comment on the stranger's words - and that wasn't a position he was in very often.

"What… what are you doing here?" Tony asked instead, his mind going for the best possibility to reach his suit in case of an attack while staring at the man who was wandering through his lab as if he belonged.

"Sir?" JARVIS asked in the background. "Do you need a doctor, Sir?"

For a second, Tony actually frowned at the ceiling.

"Of course I don't need a doctor, J," he countered, but then his attention was drawn by the stranger again who was now looking interestedly at other parts of his suit.

"Interesting things you've got here," the man commented, as if Tony had never asked a question. "Nanotechnology?"

"Nano- what?" Tony actually frowned at that word.

"Ah," the stranger replied, still not looking at him. "I guess not - at least not yet."

Then he shrugged.

"Don't worry, you will get there eventually."

Oddly enough, it was the last words in the voice of the stranger that actually called up a hazy memory in Tony's mind.

"Wait!" He stared at the stranger. "Have we met before?"

"Once," the stranger replied, not at all looking at Tony. Instead, he watched Dum-E with a crooked head and a thoughtful expression. "I'd actually be surprised if you remember that meeting clearly. You… were a bit out of it at that time."

Tony frowned.

He narrowed his eyes and tried to force his memory to connect the stranger with somebody of his past, but before he could, JARVIS spoke up again, distracting him.

"Are… you alright, Sir?"

Tony frowned, now looking at the ceiling instead of the stranger.

"Why shouldn't I be JARVIS?"

"Well, you're a bit agitated, Sir - and you're talking with no one," the A.I. replied hesitatingly.

Tony stared at the man in front of him.

"I'm definitely talking with someone, J," he corrected his creation.

"My sensors say that there's nobody in the room with you, Sir," the A.I. countered. "Are you sure you don't want me to call a doctor? You… seem to be hallucinating and if I'm allowed to point out, hallucinations indicate that something is wrong with the human experiencing them. They can be triggered by fever, by-"

"Stop it, J! I'm _not _hallucinating anything!" Tony interrupted his creation and then turned to the white clad stranger in his lab.

"You're not an illusion or hallucination, are you?" He said and looked at the man in front of him. Said man was currently studying one of his finished IronMan suits with interest in his eyes.

"Not that I know of," he countered, not even looking at Tony. "But then, considering the amount of palladium poison running through your body right now - who knows?"

Tony opened his mouth to object, just to close it again.

"The poisoning isn't common knowledge," he said, his eyes narrowing.

The man in front of him just shrugged, not even turning to look at him.

"So?"

"How do you know?" Tony countered, then an unhappy thought crossed his mind. "Or are you really a hallucination?"

The stranger laughed, his face oddly blurred, not as sharply formed as Tony'd expect from a real man. Tony tried to recognise his face, tried to place the man, tried to find out how this stranger could know something about him that shouldn't have been known by anybody...

Irritatingly, recognising the stranger was hindered by the glowing white clothing the other man wore, because they seemed gleam in a supernatural light and therefore seemed to blur the man's features.

No, it took a moment or two, but then Tony noticed that it wasn't the blindingly white clothing that blurred the other man's features, it was the man himself who was blurred.

"I… think I like you," the blurred stranger commented, turned and vanished into nothingness.

Tony shuddered.

It seemed that he actually had started to hallucinate.

Maybe, he needed a new combination for his healthy smoothie… or Dum-E had added something to the one Tony drunk again that Tony hadn't noticed this time around...

At least, that's what he thought until he met the stranger wandering his lab three days later for the second time.

At that time, he had been occupied with his will. He had been thinking about what he wanted to give away and what he wanted Pepper to have…

And then, he looked up - and saw the stranger standing in his lab, looking at his suits.

"You're here again!" He gasped.

This time around, the stranger actually looked up and at him.

"In some way," he agreed, his mouth twitching as if he was about to smirk. "But then, you're here as well."

"I'm supposed to be here," Tony countered coolly. "You, on the other hand-"

"Am supposed to be here as well," was the strangers amused reply.

Tony opened his mouth, but was interrupted by the stranger.

"The question is: where is here for you - and where is it for me?" he continued.

Tony's eyes narrowed.

"Are you... telling me that there's a difference between your and my reality?" He asked slowly, his mind combining the odd words of the man and drawing his conclusions.

"There might be," the man replied and he smirked slightly.

Tony frowned, but now that the man actually looked at him and he could see his face from the front… he knew that man.

"You're… Death's Bouncer," he whispered.

The man shot him an amused look.

"I see you remember your hilarious name for me," he said with a smirk. "Sweet!"

Tony's eyes narrowed.

"Why are you here?" he asked the other man instead.

Death's Bouncer just raised a challenging eyebrow at him.

"You're a genius," he reminded Tony. "Figure it out."

Tony stared at the other man.

Then he snorted.

"I'd say because I'm dying - but that doesn't explain why you're here… and I'm not _there_, you know?" he pointed out calmly.

The other man laughed at that.

"Actually, you're neither _here __**nor **__there_," Death's Bouncer pointed out amused. "But, for your sake, we can at least pretend I'm more in your reality than you in mine."

Tony stared at the other man.

"I'm... quite sure you said that to allay my fears… but I'm… not quite sure if you actually managed that, you know?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

The other man looked at Tony in amusement.

"If you had a choice, where would you prefer us to be? With you in your reality or with me in mine?" He countered with a smirk.

Tony blinked and thought that through.

He guessed that having the choice of having a stranger in his workroom compared to having a stranger who actually was part of a different reality just looking like he was in his workroom, well, then he actually preferred the later - just for his safety.

But if you added that the other reality he was currently half-a-step inside was the way to death… well, he was quite sure his answer would be different...

Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because the man nodded.

"So - how about we keep pretending I'm the visitor - and not you?" he suggested and Tony wondered if Death's Bouncer had always been that good in reading people.

"So… if you're in your reality and I'm in mine - shouldn't you be unable to actually see my workshop?" Tony countered instead, not keen on commenting on the other man's last words.

Death's Bouncer laughed.

"I can't actually touch your stuff," he replied and reached through one of Tony's suits just to demonstrate it. "But I have no trouble seeing it."

His eyes wandered over Tony's stuff.

"You have some quite interesting things here," he added. "Ever thought about nanotechnology? It might help with your suits."

"SciFi fan much?" Tony countered and huffed. "I've the best tech out there and Death's Bouncer comes and tells me it's not enough!"

"Not a bouncer," the man replied amused.

"Doorman, then," Tony countered and waved it off. "A SciFi nerd as Death's Doorman - not that much better."

"And not a Science Fiction nerd either," the other man added amused. "I've just lived long enough to see what people are capable of and I'm definitely interested if you have the ability to find out how nanotech functions."

Tony actually frowned at that.

"You make it sound as if it's been done before," he said accusingly.

"Several times," the other man agreed. "This is not the first world that existed, after all. Hell, it's not even the first universe. It's an interesting world, for sure, unlike the one full of dinosaur and nobody to talk to - but definitely not the first."

"Are you telling me you lived through several world ends?" Tony asked disbelievingly.

The other man shrugged.

"Call them what you want: the end of the world, Ragnarök, Götterdämmerung," he said. "Whatever you want to call them: they all needed me, so I existed. Every world so far needed me, so I stayed and existed. That's simply a fact."

He shrugged again.

"Not that I care about something like that," he said. "I'm just a guy, after all."

Something the way he said it made Tony stare at him in disbelief.

The other man smiled mockingly - not at Tony but at somebody unseen Tony had never met.

"Somehow," Tony said slowly. "I get the feeling you're a liar."

The other man shrugged.

"You'd not be the first person to accuse me of lying," he said. "And you'll definitely won't be the last."

This time the smirk was definitely directed at Tony.

"It's always fun to see them scrambling in the hope of finding a clue to where the lies end and the truth starts - or the other way around?"

Tony opened his mouth to comment on that, before closing it again.

As much as he liked being controversial, normally, in this case, he abstained. He had no interest in arguing - and most likely losing - against Death's Doorman.

"So…," he said instead. "Does that mean I will see you more often from now on?"

The other man shrugged.

"If you were normal, you wouldn't see me at all, even now," he countered. "But since you're currently living basically a rebirth you decided on… and maybe also because I think you a teeny, tiny bit interesting… yes. You're going to see more of me from now on - at least until you save yourself or die."

"No pointers on how to survive?" Tony asked.

Death's Doorman's lips twitched.

"Nope," he said. "I don't hijack destiny or fate. Either you find an answer, somebody else does and helps you or you die. No help from me, I fear."

Tony just snorted.

"Should have guessed that," he said and turned back to his will.

The other man just shrugged.

"You could have," he agreed. "But… doesn't mean we can't talk about everything else, you know?"

Oddly enough, over time, that was what they did.

...

"According to her files she was a lingerie model in Japan," Tony said, staring at the file he had been reading.

"Not very believable," Death's Doorman countered. "Even with only looking at those pictures and never having met her I can see she's got combat experience."

"Was that a guess or a supernatural mojo?"

"A guess. I _could _concentrate on her and find out her whole life experience until now - but really, who wants to learn something before they have to? And as long as she doesn't die… well, her life isn't actually my concern, you know?"

"And yet you're here and messing up my life," Tony countered with an eye-roll while mentally adding a reassuring speech for JARVIS to his to-do that day. The poor A.I. always feared for Tony's mental health after a talk with Death's Doorman.

"Not the same, my merchant," the other man answered and waved it off. "You're dying, after all."

Tony guessed that the man was right after a fashion.

…

"You know, sometimes I wonder if I should have told Pepper… or Rhodey," Tony said morosely.

"You can still come clear to them," Death's Doorman pointed out.

"Nah, not without a lecture," Tony countered. "And my time is far too short already to waste it on a lecture."

"But you still have time to waste it on feeling guilty for lying to them."

"Oh, shut up, you!"

…

"You know, if I could alter the chemical makeup of my body then-"

"You're aware, you're not a chemist by trade," Death's Doorman countered.

"I could learn it," Tony pouted.

"Not in the time you estimated that you still have."

Tony opened his mouth to object.

"And even if you manage to learn the theoretical aspect, the practical aspect needs practice - which you don't have and won't learn in time, so forget it."

Tony closed his mouth.

…

"You know, I believe Miss Rushman is spying on me," Tony said.

"Quite possible considering the way she snooped in your living room," Death's Doorman agreed.

"She snooped?"

"Amateurish, but yes, she did."

"Amateurish for you, maybe, _I _on the other hand am _not _a millennia old being. I didn't notice anything."

"Obviously."

"Hey!"

...

"Re-decorating?"

"I found a different element," Tony countered, not even looking up from where he was welding the tubes. "One of my father's videos held the answer. My calculations tell me that it should be a good fit instead of the palladium."

"Ah, guess that means goodbye then."

"What? No 'I'll miss you'?"

"I know you will, I don't need to remind you," the other man countered amused. "Goodbye, Tony - grow stronger, because since you will live, you will have to fight another day!"

"Hey! Maybe I'll actually die next time and then you won't get to see me because I meet Jarvis instead!"

"And here I thought that after months of constant visits, you'd prefer me over your old buttler!"

And with that, Death's Doorman vanished - at least until New York…

xXxXxXx

The fight had been a long one, and while the Avengers had been those who stopped the attack officially in the media, Tony had seen other people fighting while he was flying through the streets.

On the roofs of Hell's Kitchen a man in a red suit with horns was fighting aliens.

In another part of New York, a man with shaking hands stood on his own rooftop controlling golden sparks of magic.

There were people of all kind, with claws or other powers, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, from street to street.

There were snipers, mutants, assassins, police men, military men, federal agents and the odd person who was neither and yet still around and fighting.

And in one corner, Tony encountered a man in white with a silver mask in the form of a skull hiding his face.

The man wielded a sword and when Tony flew by, he raised it as if to greet him.

That time, Tony had grabbed the nuke and flown willingly into space with it.

Seeing the enemy's army out there had been terrifying, yet, dying just seconds later had been even more terrifying than the army he had seen just seconds before.

"Welcome back, my merchant."

Tony was surprised to find himself in the middle of this foggy, white not-world again that he could remember from his time unconscious (_dead, Tony, __**dead!**__)_ in Afghanistan.

The ghostly voice was male and the same - even a bit more unreal - like the one of the man waiting for him the last time.

Yet, when Tony looked around, he couldn't see Death's Doorman anywhere.

For a moment, Tony hesitated, then he decided that it didn't matter if he could actually see the other man or not and spoke up anyway.

"I thought if I died, I'd be met by Jarvis," Tony commented calmly.

There was a ghostly laugh as an answer, before the man's voice could be heard again.

"I like you," he said. "Isn't that reason enough for me to see you again?"

Tony snorted.

"So you what? Hijacked my way to death and decided to meet me again?"

Again, laughter flooded this world of nowhere.

"Oh, my merchant," the man replied amused. "That might actually be something I'll do one day just because this is you and I like you!"

Tony snickered.

"No fear that you'd get fired for something like that?"

Laughter.

"I'm a rider, the fourth of the horsemen, merchant," the man answered and his voice suddenly changed from ghostly to real. "I don't think there are a lot of people who could fire me from my job - and even less who'd even think about something like that."

The voice came from behind Tony, so Tony turned - and stared.

The man was clothed in white just like the last times he met him.

Truthfully, he didn't even look as if he had aged a day.

Yet, there was something different with him as well.

It took a second or two for Tony to actually comprehend what he was seeing.

The man's white clothing was coloured with tiny spots, it was partly charred, ripped and partly - especially near the rips and tears - blood-splattered.

On the man's hip was a sword and in his left hand was a silver mask which looked like a skull. Tony would have wondered if the man was even able to wear it considering that it didn't have space for a nose, if he hadn't remembered the fight in the streets of New York and the man wearing the skull mask in the middle of it.

"Death's Doorman," Tony said. "And here I thought you weren't allowed to leave your post to go and play in the living world."

The other man laughed and belatedly Tony recognised the tiny, coloured spots all over the man's white clothing as the blood of the chitauri.

"I never said that I was restricted to the in-between, my merchant," he replied. "And I'm not actually Death's Doorman, you know?"

Tony shrugged.

"When the title fits," he countered and the other man shook his head, quietly amused before he took a seat just like the last time around.

Tony raised an eyebrow at him.

As an answer, the other man rolled his eyes, gestured with his hand and then reached into nowhere to pull out two beers while Tony gingerly sat down onto the seat that had appeared behind him.

The moment he sat, he got a bottle thrown at him.

"Er… thanks," he said, catching the bottle, opening it with only a thought and then taking a gulp. "I needed that."

"Considering the current situation, I can't say I can't understand that," came the dry reply while the man curled up a bit in his own chair. "It was an exhausting day - for you and for me."

"Why?" Tony countered. "That many came by here, or what?"

The man waved it off.

"No," he said. "Only you and one other. That damn man actually tried to interrogate me instead of deciding on his fate, so I decided to stick him in limbo for a while. Maybe that ensures he won't be as unflappable the next time we meet."

Tony looked at his companion intrigued.

"You can do that? Stick someone in limbo?"

"Sure. Not the hardest part in my job to do."

Tony opened his mouth to ask further questions, but stopped himself with a shake of his head before he actually could in the end. He had other things he wanted to know.

"If I'm dead, why am I here?"

"Not dead," was the calm reply. "Not yet, anyway."

"So… I can return?" This question was actually important for Tony to know the answer of. He definitely didn't want to hurt Pepper by dying like this today - especially not because he feared that Pepper would feel guilty if she found out that he called her after he died.

"If that is what you wish," the other man agreed, looking at Tony seriously. "But returning… it will have consequences for you, Stark."

"No return as the old Tony, huh?" Tony said dryly, remembering the last time he died.

"That as well," his companion agreed. "But there is more to it, this time. Last time, dying changed you into Iron Man. Are you ready to give up Iron Man to change again?"

Tony hesitated.

"Is this the price for returning?" He asked cautiously.

The man smiled just a bit bitterly.

"No," he said. "The price of returning is rebirth and therefore change. But change brings consequences - and one of them might be the loss of Iron Man."

Tony closed his eyes.

_The consequences might be the loss of Iron Man._

_**Pepper.**_

"No matter what," he said, his eyes opening again. "I want to return. I don't want to die yet, Doorman."

The other man sighed.

"I normally use Adam," he countered and Tony choked on the last sip of his beer.

"Like Adam and Eve?" He spluttered.

"I think it's ironic," the other man replied amused and winked at him. "Especially because the most people don't get the joke. Now go! Live! Grow stronger - fight another day!"

And with that, the white world dissolved and spit him back out into the real world to the Hulk's roar.

And if Tony might have searched every recording in all of New York in search of Adam - just to find nothing - nobody needed to know.

xXxXxXx

After that death, Tony had to admit it got harder.

_PTSD._

_Nightmares._

_Panic attacks._

_The Mandarin._

_Fighting the Mandarin._

_Pepper and Extremis..._

The next time, Tony met Adam was the day he decided to undergo surgery to remove the shrapnels in his chest.

"Ah, back again, my merchant?"

Tony frowned and looked around.

"I shouldn't be here," he said. "Extremis-"

"Keeps you alive," the other man agreed. "Or at least it should have."

"So… I died?"

"No," Adam replied. He was again sitting bonelessly in a padded chair. "But they stopped your heart to remove one of the trickier shrapnel pieces. You won't die from it permanently - but you still might if they stop your heart for too long."

"You're talking in riddles like always," Tony countered dryly.

Adam smirked.

"My pleasure."

This time, Tony just rolled his eyes before he sat down - just to have a padded chair puff into existence right beneath his butt.

Adam reached into nothingness and fished out two beer, throwing one of the bottles to Tony.

"Thanks," Tony said before eyeballing Adam. "How long will I be here this time around?"

Adam shrugged.

"Not long, I think," he said. "At least as long as your docs don't muck up your op, that is."

Tony just frowned.

"But… if I'm not dead and not really dying why am I here at all?"

Adam shrugged again.

"You amuse me and the state you were in allowed me to pull you here?" He suggested innocently.

Tony gawked.

That… definitely wasn't in any way or form the answer he had expected…

"You pulled me here because it amuses you?!" He screeched finally.

The other man just raised an eyebrow.

"That - and to talk to you," he agreed.

"Talk to me about what?!"

For a moment, Adam just stared at Tony hard.

His expression was more serious than Tony had ever seen on the other man.

"New York," he said and Tony was surprised when his breathing didn't quicken this time around.

"I… there's nothing to talk-"

"Keep the bullshit," Adam countered. "I was there when you went through the wormhole - physically and mentally. I can see the mental damage it did to you and I'm not leaving you to lose yourself in your trauma."

"It's better already!" Tony yelped.

"And talking about it will only help even more," Adam countered. "Especially when the other person already knows all of you and won't judge you."

"You're real," Tony said. "You could tell it to the press!"

Adam just rolled his eyes.

"I can't tell anybody anything when it comes to the things I find out in the in-between," he said. "Just like I couldn't tell you the solution for your poison-problem."

Those words actually reminded Tony of Adam's knowledge of his poisoning and the fact that even with Adam knowing, it hadn't come out to the press.

"I… alright, I'll talk to you - but only if you answer me one question-"

"Happy had the choice," Adam said, interrupting Tony. "What he decided - well, that's not something I'm in the liberty to say. You will have to find out by yourself."

Tony closed his mouth again, suppressing a relieved sigh.

He was sure, that if Happy had the choice - then he would live. Tony couldn't see the other man giving up on his life.

"Thanks."

"No thanks needed," Adam replied, waving it off. "Now talk…"

Tony had to admit, it was the weirdest kind of shrink-session he ever attended…

xXxXxXx

_After that day, his life got only weirder and weirder._

_The meeting with the boy who was Spiderman and all the feelings of a mentor that came with it._

_**Ultron.**_

_And the blame he had to shoulder because of it._

_**The Accords.**_

And in the end, the Civil War - which ended again in his death, this time far away from home in an old Hydra bunker in the middle of nowhere.

Oh, this time around it wasn't a real death.

He survived, without too much trouble.

Yes, his suit was nearly destroyed, leaving him in that bunker nearly stranded, but he didn't die.

_At least, he didn't die._

"You would have died if your A.I. wouldn't have send that emergency signal and contacted people to save you."

Tony turned around, suddenly again in this white and foggy nowhere he had visited twice already.

"I shouldn't be here," were his first words. "I was fine when Cap left me."

"You were unable to stand," the man, Adam, countered, his voice dark and not at all amused.

"I was awake and talking."

"And alone in a bunker with no way to call for help." Adam looked at him in reprimand. "And no one there who could go and look for you."

"Vision-"

"Was in America - like everybody else who could help you," was the calm rebuke. "It took them hours to get you."

"I-"

"Nearly froze to death," Adam ended the sentence for Tony. "The only reason you didn't was because I like my merchant and intervened just enough to keep you semi-alive."

Tony frowned.

"There's no way this would have killed me," he said. "The suit is regulated and-"

"Not working anymore," Adam added pointedly. "Not to mention the injuries you sustained thanks to Steven Grant Roger's shield and thanks to James Buchanan Barnes. They're super-soldiers, you're just a human in a metal suit. Broken bones and internal injury is basically expected by a confrontation like that."

"Barnes killed my parents," this time Tony snarled. "I couldn't just stand there and-"

"I'm quite aware of every death caused by the Winter Soldier," the other man interrupted him calmly. "And I understand your grief and your fury about the fact that Steven decided to keep you in the dark about something so important. But tell me, my merchant - do you really blame the weapon for the death of your parents? Shouldn't you actually blame the perpetrator instead?"

Tony wanted to snarl at that, to rant, to-

"Do it," Adam slouched down into his suddenly appearing chair, pulling a beer bottle out of nowhere. "Rant, scream, do whatever you need - and then return to the living world and do the right thing, Stark!"

"So - no choice this time around, _Adam_?" Tony countered heatedly. "You're actually ordering me around now?!"

"You're not dead, Tony," Adam countered amused. "I'm the fourth horseman. I can't actually influence you this time around - not even to give you a choice considering that you _didn't _actually die."

"_Then why are you here?_"

The other man shrugged.

"Because you're my merchant and I might be egoistic and more a survivor than a fighter - but that doesn't mean that I go and leave those that belong to me in their time of need."

"Yeah, well, there were other times I could have needed someone around as well, yet, you weren't there then, were you?" Tony countered furious.

Adam shrugged.

"You had others back then. Virginia Potts, James Rhodes, Robert Bruce Banner, Natalia Romanova - no matter who, you weren't alone."

"Well, then nothing has changed compared to those times!" Tony countered.

Adam just took another sip of his beer and raised his eyebrow.

"You were alone when you lost consciousness in that bunker," he countered. "You were on your way to your next death and while I was sure I wouldn't have to give you that choice this time around, I also thought it unfair for you to be alone for hours until you'd be finally found."

"So you what? Dragged me here?"

"Something like that," Adam agreed, calmly. "It was my right as your master and my duty as your weapon, after all."

"We're not connected in any way or form! Stop acting as if we are!" Tony countered, all his fury suddenly finding a new target in the man in front of him. "I don't know why we meet every fucking time I die - but there's no, I repeat, absolutely _no_ connection in any way or form and even if there was I wouldn't want it!"

"You know that those words will be and stay a lie as long as you continue to deal in death," Adam countered calmly and took another sip of his beer. "But don't mind me, continue. I'm willing to listen to all your other pitiful grievances."

Those words just spiked Tony's fury further and soon he ended up ranting and raving and screaming at the man in front of him who took it all in, not saying a word.

And when Tony was finally forced to stop thanks to exhaustion, the man only nodded slightly.

"You done?" he asked and then nodded when Tony didn't answer. "Good. And now get back there. Live! Grow stronger! Fight another day!"

And with that, the white world dissolved into the white of a hospital room.

xXxXxXx

That had been the last time, Tony had seen Adam - and now, after the war with Thanos, after _The Snap_… well, Tony definitely didn't expect to meet the other man again.

He was actually fully prepared to meet Jarvis and go on.

So, being spat out into the white world of the in-between was the last thing Tony actually expected to happen.

"What?"

"Shouldn't you be used to coming here after all those times you ended up here for different reasons?" Adam's voice said amused from behind Tony.

Tony turned, just to see Adam sitting in his usual chair, drinking beer.

His white clothes, on the other hand, were more rags than clothes.

They were burned, dirty and basically coloured with blood. They were also so much ripped that Tony wasn't too sure how the formerly white pullover was still sitting on Adam's shoulders and not pooled around Adam's waist.

"Do… I actually want to know?" Tony asked, wondering if Pepper didn't have finally an impact on him considering his word-choice.

Adam looked down towards his clothes, then shrugged which nearly dislodged the pullover from its precarious hold.

"It was a bit of a fight, wasn't it?" He countered.

Next to him, on his chair's armrest was lying his silver skull-mask, like the rest of his clothes splattered with blood.

"You were actually participating in the fight?" Tony asked surprised.

Adam just shrugged.

"Just like I did the one in New York and the first against Thanos," he replied, sounding disinterested.

"You participated in the first as well and we lost neverthe-"

"Ah," Adam interrupted him. "Not actively, like this one."

Tony frowned, but before he could ask, Adam continued.

"I just… ensured that the vanished ended up in stasis and," he shrugged. "Healed."

"Healed?"

Adam shrugged.

"I might not have stepped in actively because you had to find a way to stop Thanos yourselves - but ensuring that those vanished are returned healed and in full fighting power… well, let's just say that's me, allowed to cheat a bit."

Tony snorted.

"Sure you don't have to face consequences for that?"

"From whom?" Adam countered. "Those more powerful than me, know me and my way and left me alive since the beginning, anyway. And everybody else - well, they don't have a say in what I do or don't do."

"So… Death won't fire you for cheating?" Tony asked a bit amused.

This time around, his joke backfired on him.

"Considering that I am Death - no, I don't think I will be fired," Adam countered with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Death?!"

Adam raised an eyebrow at Tony.

"Death, Methos, Adam - I don't really care what you call me," he said.

Tony shook his head.

"No! No! NO! I mean, you are _**Death**_?!"

Adam rolled his eyes.

"I told you I'm the fourth of the horsemen - who else should that be but Death?"

For a moment, Tony opened his mouth, then he closed it again, for once unable to formulate a witty comeback.

In the end, he shook his head and decided to think about the implication that Death walked the Earth as a semi-human later.

"So… you've come personally to bring me to the afterlife?" he asked instead.

Death crooked his head.

"You know," he said. "That's exactly what I have to do to follow fate and destiny's rule."

Tony sighed and nodded, before standing up from where he sat down to let himself be escorted to the life after death.

"But," Adam continued. "I'm currently a bit pissed at them for trying to kill off my Merchant just after I managed to raise him right."

"Raise-"

"What else would I call it? Grooming?"

Tony blinked.

Adam just shrugged.

"I need a Merchant on Earth - especially now that Earth has been opened to the wider universe. Somebody has to protect it, after all."

"The others are still alive - and the Sorcerer Su-"

"No matter how brilliant they are - not one of them has your brain," Adam replied amused before standing up. "Sorry Tony, but you know my motto already, don't you?"

Tony stared at Death.

"What?"

"Live, grow stronger - _fight another day!_"

And with that, Adam shoved him.

The last thing Tony saw was a wicked smile on Adam's face and the white nothingness dissolving.

Then, Tony coughed and took his first breath... _again_.

xXxXxXxXxXxManipulatorxXxXxXxCheatxXxXxXxXxCheatxXxXxXxXxManipulatorxXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Well, I finally finished it. That whole thing started out as a 'short'-story after Endgame… and somehow got longer and longer over the weeks I wrote on it… *sweatdrop*_

_I hope you liked my alternate ending._

_Ebenbild_


End file.
